NHD and the White House

I serve on the board of the (non-partisan) White house Historical Assocation.  The Assocation was started by Jackie Kennedy when she renovated the White House in 1961.  Since then, the Association has offered educational programs, purchased artifacts for the White House and contributed to preserving the building and its history.

The Assocation celebrated its 50th anniversary at the White House last Monday that included a brief ceremony at which First Lady Michelle Obama and Caroline Kennedy spoke.  I was fortunate to have about 20 seconds to meet Mrs. Obama.  Fortunately, I can speak quickly and I rattled off the very basics of NHD.  Her response was, “Well, why don’t we have the students here?”  She told me to talk with the WH social secretary about doing so in June.  NHD students certainly deserve such recognition and we will pursue the possibility.

In the meantime, for more information about the White House Historical Association and its excellent programs, got to http://www.whha.org/.

Understanding Current Events Through Historical Perspective

A few days ago, I attended a program at Whitman HIgh School in Bethesda, Maryland.  The event was part of a series in a news literacy project and included a discussion by Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne and New York Times columnist David Brooks.  It was moderated by CNN’s Chief White House correspondent, Jessica Yellin.

It was a fascinating discussion of current issues by a conservative and a liberal columnist.  They actually agreed on a few things!

But what I found most interesting was that for almost every question that Dionne addressed, he started by placing it into historical perspective.  In so doing, his answers were more clear and thoughtful and made one really think about what he was saying.  This, of course, is something we want students to learn, as those who participate in NHD do.  In the professional evaluation of NHD conducted by Rockman, et.al., NHD students out-performed their non-NHD peers in a variety of ways, including a self-assessment regarding their greater understanding of current issue because they learned to place such issues and events into historical context and perspective.

Connecting the dots of the past to the present will help young people grow into thoughtful voters and citizens.

Reflections on Learning in China

I’ve been back in the States for a week and mostly over the jetlag.  So I’ve had some time to reflect on my adventure in China.  First, my congratulations to Mark Johnson and Bryan Munson for a stimulating learning experience that mixed primary and secondary sources and included articles, poetry, podcasts, documentaries and videos in addition to visits to several historic sites.  In studying the Long March, students were urged to examine China’s culture as well as its history and to try to make sense of today’s China within historical and cultural perspectives.  One video in particular looked at Chinese civilization in a modern context: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/martin_jacques_understanding_the_rise_of_china.html.

This curriculum, along with discussions with Chinese university students and local individuals, helped our students work through the myths and state approved version of Mao and the Chinese Revolution (and all of its phases).  Our students examined varying perspectives to understand the legacy of the man and his impact on China in all its complexities.

Second, congratulations to Concordia International School Shanghai for its commitment to analytical learning.  In a country in which students learn through rote, Concordia’s curriculum emphasizes critical thinking, questioning, examining different viewpoints and drawing conclusions.  This is in strong contrast to even the university students with whom we had open conversations.  Several told me they thought history was a boring subject—not surprising since history there is generally taught with emphasis on details instead of discussion.

For me, in addition to the emersion in learning, the best part of the trip was interacting with the Concordia students and being part of their learning process.  And, of course, there was time for a few NHD discussions about this year’s theme, Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History. 

If anyone is interested in learning more about China’s fascinating history in the 20^th Century, here are a few titles:

Chang, Jung.  Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China.

Sun, Shuyun.  The Long March: the True History of Communist China’s Founding Myth.

And for a more recent look at the “New China”:

Hessler, Peter.  River Town.

Student Poetry

As part of the learning adventure in China, the students on the trip read and analyzed Mao’s poetry.  They were then asked to write their own poems.  Four agreed to allow me to post them, but to protect them and their school, we decided to post them on NHD’s Facebook page (which is blocked in their country): http://www.facebook.com/nationalhistoryday

Today, we posted an introduction by the teacher who led them through the process and one poem.  There will be three more poems, so stay tuned to NHD!

 

Adventure in China: Thinking Critically about the Past

I’m back in the US and the students and teachers are back in Shanghai.  Now it’s time to reflect on the experience as a whole.  First up, Mark Johnson, NHD coordinator-Asia, teacher at Concordia International School and leader of our adventure in China:

“As a History teacher, I am amazingly fortunate to have the
opportunities I have through Concordia International School Shanghai.  To travel throughout China studying 20^th century history, sharing the experience with the motivated, intelligent students who have commented on Dr. Gorn’s blog already is truly a blessing.  And to have Dr. Gorn’s partnership along this trip, learning alongside the students and discussing History Day at every opportunity made this trip more special than normal.

The students were from a mix of grade levels from Freshmen to Seniors, and from a variety of nations, as their posts express.  Some of the students knew Chinese history quite well, while others were studying such topics as the Long March, the Chinese civil war, and Mao Zedong for the first time.  Their performance on the trip was simply  amazing.  They read extensively in preparation, listened to podcasts about Chinese history, and prepared to conduct oral history interviews.  While on the trip, they enthusiastically engaged with locals, discussing history and culture, participated with insight and interest at every museum and historic site we visited, and maintained an open mind about the more controversial topics we examined.

Of course our group got the official view of events presented by the museums and historic sites; and of course there is another side to the story.  What emerged is a complex story that is told differently depending on one’s national perspective.  The goal of the trip was to present the story to the students with all of its complexities, analyzing and evaluating primary and secondary sources, talking with locals about their views, and discussing the events with people who were there, like Mao’s  neighbor Mrs. Tan and Sidney Rittenberg, a man whose extensive (and fascinating) experience in China from 1945-1980 gives him special insight that helped deepen the students’ understanding.  (Editor’s note:  after returning to Shanghai, the students conducted a Skype interview with Mr. Rittenberg who experienced the Chinese  Revolution firsthand.)  Through this extensive and interactive experience, the students took in a great amount of information and used discernment and reflection to come to their own understanding of the events under examination and the legacy of Mao.

In my opinion, history education should have a dual focus of both gaining content knowledge, and (more importantly) developing critical thinking, problem solving, and synthesis skills.  Through the opportunities of last week’s study trip, students took on great intellectual challenges and impressed me with their thoughtful, insightful discernment.  It has been a pleasure to work with them throughout this process and we hope you have enjoyed reading about their experiences.”  –Mark Johnson

Making the Connection

After a week of reading, site visits and poetry writing, the journey ended and students and teachers returned to Shanghai—but not before one last thought pulling it all together from Lina:

“It’s one thing to read about Mao’s Long March. It’s another thing to trudge through the caves of Yan’An during a cold rainy day, leaving soggy footprints in the orange dirt roads comprised of a thousand years of yellow dust sifted from the Gobi Desert. Though I have lived in China for quite a few years and have studied a bit of its revolutionary history, I have always felt detached from the facts and figures. But going on this trip changed that. After sleeping on a brick bed in a cave like the one Mao stayed in, walking through the orange dirt courtyard where Mao and Jiang Qing said their marriage vows, and listening to old Mrs. Tan reminisce about her grandmother helping to deliver Mao during his birth, I feel like I’ve gained a more layered understanding of this country’s recent history. It’s not just that I’ve picked up more facts on this trip, either. What I found most inspiring and enriching about this whole experience was that I could make a connection between actual historical sites and my historical imagination, which is hard to do in the classroom. In a sense, I was able to relive the history, and that has been extremely rewarding.

One interesting thing I learned during this trip was how Chinese people today view Mao. From interviewing current university students and random Chinese tourists we happened to encounter, we obtained several general conclusions. The younger Chinese still seem to respect Mao as a symbolic head of modern China, but their respect is distant, and does not have much direct application to their daily lives. As one of the younger interviewees put it, happiness in China today is much more defined by material wealth than by ideals. To them, Mao is not directly relevant to their lives. The older Chinese, on the other hand, seem to continue believing much more strongly in the ideal of Mao, and feel closer to him, which can be attributed to the stronger “patriotic education” they received.

All in all, however, the status quo in China leans toward maintaining a kind of myth of Mao. His good points are exaggerated; he is worshipped as a god; and his flaws and mistakes are glossed over. One can only wonder how many generations it will take before the myth wears off, and China finally becomes willing to acknowledge Mao’s full complexities. “ –Lina

Victory?

Please note that we have had to be careful about our wording and refrain from mentioning certain events (we do not want to cause any trouble for the school that could come from the monitoring of the internet here, but I will be more open once I am back in the States, so stay tuned.)  Here is Chris again to wrap up our last day:

“Hello again. My name is Chris and I come from Hong Kong. On September 28^th, the Mao’s Revolution interim group went to a place east of Yan’an city known as Yang Jia Ling. There, under heavy rain, we visited the caves where the leaders of the communist revolution in China stayed. In truth, the caves were in the same style of our own cave hotel albeit less luxurious. For example, Mao Ze Dong stayed in a series of four caves, one was his room that contained a bed and two chairs and another was his office with a desk, chair and maps. (Editor’s note: the Red Army ended its Long March in 1935 in Ya’An where they remained until 1947 directing the civil war against the nationalists.  They literally built homes into the mountainside, resembling cave-like dwellings.  Our group stayed in a “cave motel” constructed in a similar manner but with indoor plumbing and television—the extent of what Chris describes as “luxurious.”)

We then went to a museum in Yan’an related to the Chinese civil war and the Anti-Japanese war. The exhibits that were most interesting to me were the guns. I was fascinated by the fact that China’s military at that time was so backward. Some of the guns were primitive matchlock rifles that had no trigger.

We then went to see the reenactment of the battle for Yan’an. As it was a reenactment, it was done with real props, real people, and even real explosions. When the Kuomintang (KMT) artillery shelled the area, the shells would land in the water and send up a plume of water approximately 50 feet high! The story of the battle began with the communist occupation. It then progressed when an enormous Nationalist force took the city by storm and the Communists where forced into strategic retreat. With the Nationalist controlling an empty city, the Communists snuck around the city unbeknownst to the KMT and waited for a striking opportunity. Finally, the Communists with their pitifully small force overtook the Nationalists who had tanks, artillery, and advanced weapons.

Later in the afternoon, we watched a movie on one of China’s recent tragedies. It was interesting to learn that most of Mao’s close friends and fellow revolutionaries died for opposing him. What they could have done in the days of the revolution was simply not possible in the new China.

An hour later, we went to the first university set up in the new China–Yan’an university(延安大学). There, we were paired up with the students who were studying English. Our purpose there was to allow them to learn how to apply their knowledge of the English language while we asked them questions regarding the Yan’an spirit and the face of new China.

I felt that our time following the footsteps of the Chinese revolution was a fascinating and challenging experience that really dragged us away from our comfort zones. Before the trip I knew next to nothing about Mao’s policies and personality. Now, I have a firm and concise understanding about the man who created the solid ground that supports the growing skyscraper of 21^st century  China.”  –Chris